


Persona Non Grata

by FlareonFan



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: F/M, not centered on romance, so don't be concerned about these pairings lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 12:10:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8844421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlareonFan/pseuds/FlareonFan
Summary: Kiibo tries to make friends in the "prison school" he's trapped in, as having friends would make him fit in with humans better. But is a mere robot capable of friendship?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I understand this isn't the kind of story you'd usually come looking for- one that doesn't contain Kiibo/Kaito, Kaede/Saihara, OR Ouma/Amami. Nearly unheard of!
> 
> But I sincerely thank anyone who wants to give this one a try :)

_ per-so-na non gra-ta _

_ Noun; an unacceptable or unwelcome person _

  
  


Since their first day in the prison, Kiibo had isolated himself from the others.

_ Don’t trust people, _ Professor Iidabashi, his creator, had told him from a young age.  _ They will take advantage of your weakness.  _

_ Weakness. _ Truthfully, it might have been a good idea to socialize with them, but they each had something he didn’t. Fifteen of the sixteen students there were humans.  Humans could empathize, could socialize, and had the capacity to feel deep emotion. He could not. And since he had been taken to this “prison school,” Iidabashi wouldn’t be there to help him, so he had to get around by himself.

The next day, as usual, Kiibo went out to the dining hall. On the way there, he walked behind Angie and Himiko, who were chattering about their dreams last night.

_ Robots can not have dreams, therefore I am unable to relate to this conversation. _ Every day, he’d listened to what people said, trying to find a pattern to follow. Socializing was one of the few functions Iidabashi hadn’t perfected in Kiibo’s AI before he was thrown into this situation.

When he sat at the table, almost everyone was already there, talking to their friends. Someone tapped his shoulder. He turned to see Kaede Akamatsu holding a plate with a pancake. “Do you require assistance?”

She sighed. “Do you have to be so formal?”

He paused, thinking. “In fact, I was programmed by my creator to-”

“I want to talk to you casually.” Softly, she smiled, and he became aware of a notification in the corner of his visual display-  _ internal temperature rising by 2.4% per minute. _

Iidabashi had never told him what this heating function was for. It activated randomly and only around certain people.

“Hello? Did you glitch out?” Kaede looked him in the eye.

_ Internal temperature rising by 3.1% per minute.  _ “Apologies. My system is doing something useless.”

“That’s okay.” Seeming to hesitate, Kaede sat in the chair next to him and set her plate down. For some reason, she seemed to shift slightly, her eyes darting.  _ Is this another signal humans use to communicate that I am not able to identify?  _ “So, uh, what do you eat?”

“Unlike humans, I do not require food. So long as I charge for six hours every night, I need nothing else to power my system.”

“I see.” For a few moments, she ate her breakfast silently as he watched her. “Sorry if this seems rude, but why are you staring at me?” she asked, an odd and crooked smile appearing on her face. Even Kiibo was able to tell it wasn’t sincere.

“No particular reason other than gathering intel on humans in general, which I believe to be important for the current situation I am in.”

“Oh. Maybe you shouldn’t only watch me, I’m just an average person. The rest of these people are unique and special in their own ways. You should watch them instead. I’m going to talk to Maki.” Taking her plate and apprehensively smiling, Kaede walked away, leaving Kiibo by himself for yet another morning.

His temperature gradually went back to normal. No longer seeing a point in staying, Kiibo left to go back to his room.

***

While Kiibo was lying still, with nothing to do, a knock came. “Who is it?”

“Your overlord.”

_ Warning: Possible danger in contact with subject. Proceed with caution. _

“Come in.”

The door flew open to reveal Ouma smiling brightly. “Kiibo!” He practically skipped over to Kiibo’s bed, plopping down on the other end and leaning in towards Kiibo.

“Ouma, you’re  _ too close, _ ” he snapped.

“Sorry.” He scooted away exactly two millimeters. “Kiibo, do you want to go do bad things with me?”

_ Warning. _ When Kiibo’s subconscious calculations worked faster than his brain to determine extreme risk in doing something, the warning message came with no elaboration. He would usually figure out himself what the problem was. “What kind of bad things?”

“We can do anything… I dunno, go steal Saihara’s hat?”

“As far as my observations go, Saihara is observant and careful. Theft of his personal property would be likely to-”

“Don’t worry about that. Kiibo, I’ve already got the  _ perfect _ plan, he’ll never notice us. I need you, though. This is the most fun thing you’ll do in this place.” Ouma wrapped his arms around Kiibo’s metallic one and snuggled closer to him. “Pleeeease? We can be friends if you do.”

At once, Kiibo recalled Iidabashi’s words.  _ Don’t trust people. They will take advantage of your weakness. _

Was that his mind’s way of telling him not to trust Ouma?

“Kiibo, you in there? I was being genuine about the friend thing, you know. I’m not a liar.” He smirked devilishly. 

Did it really matter anymore?

“Tell me the plan.”

***

Once he was in position and knew exactly what was going to happen, Kiibo determined there was an 88% chance of this plan’s failure. 

According to Ouma’s demands, Kiibo would watch the entrance to Saihara’s room most of the day for several days, keeping track of whether he was in or out and recording the usual patterns. When he’d asked Ouma what to do with the information, he had shrugged and said “just give me a 30-minute timeframe where we can be pretty sure he’s out”.

At the end of the week, Kiibo went to Ouma’s room to report his information as the latter listened intently. 

“Figure anything out?”

“Yes. Most of the time, Saihara is out of his room between 3:00 and 3:30 PM and 7:30 and 8:00 AM. He is much less likely to be there between 11:00 PM and 12:00 AM. He has consistently left his own room at that time to go to Kaede’s.”

Ouma blinked twice, his expression blank. “Do you think he has business with her? Why would Saihara want to see her so late at night?”

“I have no idea. Maybe they are conspiring…”

They were both silent for a moment. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Thanks, Kiibo.”

“Is there anything else you need me to do?”

The expression Ouma briefly showed was immediately familiar to Kiibo. It was the exact face Kaede had made near the end of their conversation, before she had walked away. “Thanks for the help, but I can handle everything else by myself.”

Something about the way Ouma said that made Kiibo pause.  _ My original understanding was that a friend would want to be around their friend. From my interactions with Ouma, that may not be the case. _

Saying nothing more, Kiibo left Ouma’s room to return to his own, passing Saihara on the way.

Since that night, he had not spoken with Ouma.

***

Several days later, he heard another knock. Rather than a simple  _ knock-knock, _ the person seeking him out tapped out some complex rhythm. He got up and opened the door to find Tenko Chabashira, a fellow inmate, smiling at him. “Hey Kiibo!”

“Hello Tenko. Do you need anything?”

“Well, Tenko thought we might have a friendly chat. Tenko only talks with the girls here, it gets a little dull at times, you know?”

Kiibo sighed. It seemed another weirdo had come to his room. “Tenko, you publicly announce your hatred for men every morning. I am not enough of a fool to believe you want to have a ‘friendly chat’ with me.” A realization came to him, and he glared. “You didn’t mean to insult my intelligence, did you? Robots are just as intelligent, if not more-”

“Calm down, silly.” She walked in and shut the door, inviting herself in. “While yes, Tenko does dislike awful boys in general, she thought, maybe you’re different. You know, better than those pieces of crap.  _ Because _ you’re a robot.”

Although he analyzed her tone and facial expression to his best ability, Kiibo detected that unless his programming failed him again, she was being sincere. “You wish to socialize with me in particular?”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Interesting.” He thought momentarily, then nodded, gesturing for her to sit with him on his bed. “You will have to lead the conversation though, as my social capabilities are limited.”

“That’s alright. So, what do you like to do in your free time?” Only slightly, she leaned towards him, focusing on his reply.

“You likely came into this conversation fully aware of this fact, but I am very unlike humans. Simply sitting or lying down in bed does not give me any sense of boredom.”

Tenko nodded, but tilted an eyebrow. “But don’t you think that’s a waste of time? You could be doing anything, like finding friends, but you choose to spend all your time locked up in here?”

Seeing nothing wrong with her question, Kiibo nodded. “I suppose so, yes.”

“Why don’t you make friends? It’s so fun having people to talk to if you’re bored, even if you’re both spewing nonsense. Tenko thinks you should make friends with someone!”

At first, he was unsure of how to respond. “I have tried to make friends,” he stated firmly.

“But Tenko never sees you talking to anyone…”

“That is because-” before he was able to finish the sentence, he stopped himself. “Well, I am unsure of the reason myself.”

Tenko grabbed one of Kiibo’s cold, metal hands in both of hers. “Then you can be Tenko’s friend! The other guys here suck, but you’re different. But you have to promise Tenko that you’ll never be like Kaito.”

“Why do you dislike Kaito more than the rest of the males here?”

“He’s so rude to Tenko, he says he won’t talk to Tenko because he thinks that women are annoying. It’s not nice to say that a whole group of people is horrible, don’t you agree, Kiibo?”

Kiibo gaped at her slightly. “I would agree, yes, but you hate men for one characteristic you believe they all possess. Is that not what you said you hate?”

Dramatically, she sighed and put a hand on her forehead. “Tenko needs a break, Kiibo thinks far too hard about what Tenko says. Relax a little. Besides, Tenko is tired. She will see you tomorrow, friend.” With that, she left his room hurriedly, not letting Kiibo speak.

She had called him “friend”, he noted.

Somehow, his calculations did not determine whether she would return the next day.

***

For the first time in his life, Kiibo found himself waiting on someone.

He had skipped breakfast to wait in his room, staring at the clock and turning up his sensitivity to audio so there would be no doubt that he’d hear any knocking that came. When the awaited sound did come, he wasted no time in jumping up from his bed to answer immediately.

Rather than Tenko, he was greeted by Kaito. “Hey, Kiibo, why didn’t you show up to breakfast?”

“I have been awaiting an appointment. Do you have business with me?”

“Ooh,  _ Kiibo _ of all people- or, not people- is waiting for someone! Who is it?”

Kiibo narrowed his eyes and frowned. “Does not being a person make me less capable of expectation? You know, I was programmed to anticipate human activity and see if my predictions were correct. My programming would adapt depending on the validity of what I was told by someone who I do not yet know to trust.”

Kaito was left gaping, trying but failing to say anything which wouldn’t exacerbate the situation. 

“Educate yourself.”

Kaito still said nothing and avoided eye contact.

Smirking like a child who had won a petty argument, Kiibo crossed his arms. “That is what I thought. Who I am meeting with is irrelevant. Now, state your business or leave.”

“Are you meeting with Tenko?”

“Give me one reason to disclose that to you.”

“Because she’s a-”

Suddenly, Kaito was off the ground. He was baffled at first, but not for long, as he was thrown across the hall and out of sight. Tenko appeared in the doorway, glaring in the direction Kaito had gone. “Damn boys.” Her expression turned more cheerful and she turned to Kiibo. “How are you?”

For a moment, he didn’t know what to say. “Where is Kaito?”

“Don’t worry about that.” She giggled. “Tenko doesn’t go lightly on boys who try to slander her. She uses the full extent of her aikido abilities!”

“I see. You are quite talented.”

Her expression quickly morphed to something he couldn’t read. He calculated it was something between confusion and flattery.

“Thank you,” she said after several moments. However, it was clear she was unsure of herself, even to Kiibo.

“What is your hesitation?”

Her face initially remained the same. “When most boys say something nice about Tenko, she throws them across the room.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re awful boys, duh!”

Her logic was flawed, but Kiibo decided it was meaningless to point it out. “Do you want to come in?” He asked.

“Yes!” She cheered. Like last time, Tenko sat on Kiibo’s bed and beamed at him with her usual smile. “It’s been awhile since Tenko has been able to talk freely with someone.” Promptly, her mouth fell to a deep frown. “Tenko’s master was the last person Tenko was close to, and I haven’t seen her since we got locked up in this place.” She turned to him. “Do you have someone you miss?”

“Someone that I miss?” His mind swiftly calculated the meaning of that word in this context and how he could act empathetic. 

“Like, a creator or something.”

Kiibo put a hand on his chin. “I do not feel those kinds of emotions, but if I did, then I suppose I would miss my creator, Professor Iidabashi.”

“A professor, huh? What was she like?”

“My creator was a male. He was very-”

“A male?! Nevermind then, Tenko doesn’t have to hear about it.”

They sat in silence, Kiibo trying to observe Tenko. Humans were very unpredictable, this one being no exception. She seemed to be overwhelmingly happy one second and then depressed in the next. “Tenko, may I ask you a question?”

Her face went immediately from bored to joyful. “Of course!”

“I’m curious, what spawned your hatred for men? And why am I the only anomaly?”

“That’s a good question.” Fidgeting, her eyes darted around the room. “You can’t tell this to anyone else, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Tenko’s master trained her in aikido since she was able to stand up, so Tenko loves her master and listens to everything she says. Master is pretty, strong, and smart.” Tenko seemed lost in her own imagination at that point. “Master taught Tenko everything, including the horrible things that men have done. They do it all because their brains are different from women’s, yeah?”

Kiibo nodded, but didn’t say anything. He continued watching her passionate speech expectantly. Tenko continued.

“Men are inclined to cheat, lie, and steal. They’ve done horrible things.” Her voice went up in pitch and shook slightly. “They’ve done horrible things to Tenko’s master.” Once she took a few deep breaths, Tenko looked up at Kiibo and into his eyes. “Tenko thinks you’re better, since you brain isn’t like a human.”

“Is that so…”

“Absolutely! Kiibo, Tenko thinks you’re really great. Oh, look at the time! I have to go!”

Just like that, she was out the door.

***

Kaito knocked later that day, clearly out of breath. “Hey bro, I never got to talk to you again. I was telling you about Tenko. Bitch has been after me all day.”

“What makes you call her something so vulgar?”

His head perked up in realization. “Oh yeah. Kiibo, don’t talk to her. She’s a liar,” he whispered urgently. “You know, most women here are. Kiibo, you might be oblivious to this, but I’m trying to help you out. She says that men are nasty, but that’s plain wrong. I’m not nasty. You’re not nasty. You know? Honestly, I don’t mean any offense to robots, but even you know your strong point isn’t reading between the lines.” Glancing back and forth, Kaito continued, “as your friend, I want to help you. Women are not going to help you at all.”

Afterwards, Kaito scurried off, as if he’d been caught doing something wrong. Confused, Kiibo shrugged and went back to waiting. Since Kaito had never given Kiibo a reason to distrust him, did that mean Tenko really was taking advantage of him?

It came together in his mind right then. What Iidabashi and Kaito had said was true, which meant Tenko wasn’t really his friend after all.

Perhaps women truly were horrible. 

***

When another knock came to his door that night, Kiibo contemplated whether he should even bother with someone as awful as Tenko. He opened the door slightly to look out at her, smiling at him gleefully.

“Good evening, Kiibo. Tenko brought a surprise for you.” She pushed the door open more, which he gave in to out of curiosity. In her hands, she was holding what appeared to be a bowl covered in tinfoil. She beamed at him as she peeled back the tinfoil to reveal brownies.

Still distrustful, he looked carefully at them. They appeared half brown and half black. After he poked one, it crumbled. Nervously, she giggled. “Uh, sorry for that. Tenko isn’t great at cooking.” She smiled softly. “I made these for you.” Her face turned a light shade of pink and she averted her eyes.

“You did not speak in third person as you usually do in that sentence.”

“Huh?”

“I said, ‘you did not speak in third person as you usually do in that sentence’.”

“Tenko did so use third person!”

“So you are trying to deceive me in more ways than one?”

For the first time since he’d met her, he saw Tenko in legitimate shock. “How did I deceive you?”

He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. “First, you took advantage of me by trying to get close to me, inevitably to use me later. Then, you gave me  _ brownies, _ a human food. Is it not common sense that robots are not able to consume human food? It would only clog up my machinery. Was that your agenda?”

“Kiibo, I didn’t know-”

“And not only that, but you lie about men and say that they are all disgusting. That is clearly wrong, though, and contradicts what you said in the very next breath- my recording functions didn’t get this wrong, did they? I quote you when I say- ‘it’s not nice to say that a whole group of people is horrible’. Yet you claim that males are horrible.”

“That was just meant as a joke, I don’t actually hate men!”

He sneered and pointed a finger to the exit. “Leave, and take your brownies with you.”

“Please don’t, Kiibo, I never wanted to hurt you…” But she soon realized how pointless her defense was, as he maintained his outraged expression. Slumping her shoulders and gazing at the floor, she grabbed the bowl of brownies and left the room. “Tenko will leave you alone,” she muttered as she slammed the door.

However, a moment after she left, he noticed an abnormality. On the floor was a single drop of water, almost unnoticeable, where Tenko had walked.

_ Where would a human produce water in such small quantities? _

The only possibilities he thought of were sweat, saliva, and tears. 

Since he couldn’t deduce what the bit of water was, he decided it was insignificant and plugged himself in for the night, becoming unconscious.

***

The next morning, he got out of bed and started towards the door, but stopped himself. Some part of his mind said that there was no reason to try to socialize with the rest of his classmates, but he dismissed the thought. If he were to make friends, he would have to at least make an attempt.

He approached Kaede and put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly. “Good morning, Kaede.”

“Oh, good morning, Kiibo. You scared me,” she muttered.  _ Internal temperature rising by 2.1% per minute. _ Kaede glanced at Saihara, who seemed to be watching her. 

As he took the seat next to her, he thought she scooted away ever so slightly. “...How are you this morning?”

“I’m doing well, thanks for asking.” Saihara, frowning slightly, began to walk towards them. Kaede seemed unaware of this. “What about you?” 

“I feel the same every morning so long as I was on my charger for the six hours I need.”

“Oh, I see.” She continued eating until Saihara came from behind her, sitting in the chair to her other side. “Ah, hello, Saihara! How are you?”

“Doing great, babe,” he whispered back, seeming to think Kiibo wouldn’t hear. From turning up his sensitivity the previous day, however, he was able to hear their conversation.

In response, she began whispering as well. “Hey, how should I ask him to go away? It’s not anything personal, but he’s just… you know…”

“Yeah, I get it. If you just keep talking to me, maybe he’ll go back to his room.”

On one hand, he wanted to go off on her for the blatant discrimination behind his back.

Yet although he was fully charged, he couldn’t find the energy to do so, especially after the results it had created when he did so to Tenko. Intent on leaving Kaede behind, Kiibo decided to go find Ouma, who he’d seen leave earlier to go to his own room.

Before he raised his fist to Ouma’s door, he heard the conversation he was apparently having with who sounded like Amami. “Ouma, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. He’s just a robot, he couldn’t care less whether you despise him or not.” The nasally voice chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah… you’re right. I can just shoo him off without any sense of guilt.”

_ That is accurate, _ Kiibo realized.  _ Robots do not have emotions, and therefore cannot be victimized. Perhaps I have just been pushing people away with my falsehoods by taking offense to discrimination. _

At that, he stomped away, instead deciding to look for Tenko, who seemed to be his only friend anymore.

“Tenko,” he called to her once he found her chatting with Himiko. “Do you mind if I sit here?”

She snarled, crossed her arms, and turned towards Himiko. The short red-haired magician looked at him with disgust. “Tenko doesn’t want to talk to you anymore. You broke her heart with what you said.”

“What did I say?”

Tenko turned back towards him, her eyes glossy. For reasons he was unsure of, she looked infuriated. “Because you’re an insensitive bastard. All you awful boys are the same.” Loudly, she sniffled.

“Go,” Himiko mouthed to him.

Without another word, he turned and left to his room.

For what he calculated as the last time for a long time, Kiibo turned the deadbolt on his doorknob and turned his audio sensitivity to a minimum.

He layed on his bed, staring at the spot by his feet where Tenko had made herself comfortable the first time she had talked to him. For some reason, his CPU continued to process every fact about his current situation, and eventually, his calculations led him to a conclusion.

The humans had rejected him because he was different.

“They are not to blame,” he said out loud to himself. 

_ Internal temperature decreasing by 5.4% per minute. _

“I will never be compatible with humans.”

_ Internal temperature decreasing by 8.7% per minute. Find Iidabashi for assistance. _

“...” 

_ Systems shutting down. _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all feedback appreciated~


End file.
